U.S. Open Capsules: A tough test without a hard course

Instead, the one-time prodigy is making his debut on golf's most imposing stage at age 28.

A career that once looked to have an unlimited future was sidetracked first by a strange illness, then more recently by his father's suicide. When he steps to the tee box at Congressional Country Club on Thursday, he'll be looking to redirect a journey that could have been something more by now — hoping there are a weekend's worth of great swings in his bag, the kind he used to make when he was the nation's top-ranked junior.

"As long as I have opportunities, I'm going to keep going," Greyling said while playing a practice round this week. "Obviously, it's super expensive staying out here. But you never know with this game. You need a couple of hot days. You can change some things."

Ten years ago, the future looked bright for Greyling, a South Africa native, whose parents moved to the United States, in part because they hoped life in America might foster a fantastic golf career for Christo.

Unlike his high school teammate, Ty Tryon, the much-hyped junior who went pro his junior year in high school, Greyling took the more traditional route. He got a scholarship to Georgia, one of the best golf schools in the country.

Around that time, he started taking a powerful acne medicine that is known to work, but also has its share of side effects. Among them: an increased risk of depression.

"I was still hitting it well on the range but I'd walk onto the course and my confidence went out the door in the span of a couple weeks," Greyling said. "I'm not about making excuses but it was definitely this medicine. I kept thinking, 'How else could I be so consistent for years and years, then overnight, shoot in the 80s and 90s?'"

Everyone from his buddy Tryon to his golf coach at Georgia, John Cook, to his countryman Ernie Els was convinced it was the acne medicine that changed things.

It got so bad so quickly that his teacher, the renowned David Leadbetter, told Greyling to put the clubs away. Some of the changes happening to his swing were messing things up beyond repair.

"I hit it way shorter. I got way worse. But I wanted to fight through it," Greyling said. "It did some damage at the time, but I tried to have a positive outlook. I couldn't hit the ball straight anymore, but I learned to get out of the trees a little better. My short game got a little better. I figured if someday I started hitting it straight again, I'd have more shots in my bag."

Greyling needs someday to show up soon.

He spent a year on the Nationwide Tour in 2008 but didn't make a cut and was relegated back to the mini tours, where long car rides and low purses are the norm. He revitalized his game this year, at least long enough to make it through two rounds of U.S. Open qualifying and earn one of the 156 spots at Congressional. He qualified on the same course as Tryon.

The high school buddies have been spending a lot of time together the last few weeks. Tryon, who found himself on the PGA Tour leaderboards at 16, suffered a similar — and more widely documented — spiral downward and has spent the last several years trying to discover the grittiness that he now concedes "I probably never really had, to be honest."

Too much, too soon?

Of course it was. For both of them.

"He wants to be out here. He's never talked about anything else," Tryon said of his buddy. "I think those mini tours can take their toll on you, but they can also build your resolve. When we were 16, I don't think either of us thought it would be 10 years before we'd play our first Open together."

Greyling, whose symptoms slowly abated after he quit using the acne medicine, has played practice rounds this week with Els, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and British Open winner Louis Oosthuizen, while his mother, brother, sister and fiancee follow every shot. Not a bad way to spend the week, he says, especially considering that "two weeks ago, all I had were a couple squirrels watching me."

But unlike so many who battle their way through the grueling qualifying rounds, Greyling is not simply happy to be here. He can't afford that attitude. The stakes have grown too high.

"He knows that at some point, if he wants to stay out here, there has to be some success," said his mother, Katinka.

Finances were no small part of his father Iaan's spiral downward, a decline that first led to his breakup with Katinka, then to suicide in 2009. Greyling buried his father on his 27th birthday. And though he knows he needs to succeed at golf to make a living, the tragedy also put the game in perspective.

"My father's death, it seems like he's got this new peace over him," said Greyling's brother, Derick. "The stress, the pressure that comes over him can't compare to the grief he felt. He's got this calmness over him that we haven't seen before. At the qualifier, he said in the morning that he knew he was going to make it. His mind just seemed like it was right. It doesn't seem like he made it through that qualifier by chance."

Like most golf fans, the Greylings are keenly aware that the U.S. Open ends on Father's Day. They feel they have a message to send — that, yes, especially in a time of financial hardship around the country, depression can overtake you, but also that it can be overcome.

What a tribute to dad it would be for Greyling to spread that message with a trophy in his hands.

A long shot? For sure. But Greyling and his family know all about rewriting scripts.

"In hindsight, connecting the dots backward from where we are today, it all makes sense," Katinka said. "Even his father's death, we couldn't understand at the time and we still can't understand it. But everything took the paces they were supposed to take and now we're here. And maybe this will be the beginning of something really good in his life."

-- Eddie Pells

New par for the course: U.S. Open gives up a stroke

Begrudgingly, mind you.

The Blue Course's No. 6, which played as a par 4 in the two previous U.S. Opens at Congressional, will be a par 5 when the tournament begins Thursday morning, the miserly U.S. Golf Association having decided it going too far against the grain by making the hole into something it was never meant to be.

"It's a great change by the USGA," said Ernie Els, who had reason to like the old setup, having won the U.S. Open on the Blue Course in 1997. "There's enough really tough holes out here at Congressional. That green was built for a par 5, and we've had this debate in Europe a couple of weeks ago about holes and greens that are built for 5s and then you change it to a 4, it just doesn't quite mesh with the design. I'm glad they did that."

Congressional's members have always played No. 6 as a tricky, risk-reward par 5. A pond hugs the front and right side of the green, making a layup the better play for golfers lacking any confidence whatsoever in their approach game.

For the pros, however, it was one of those tweeners — two easy if it's a 5 and too hard if it's a 4. The average score on No. 6 in 1997 was 4.533 — the half-shot over par earning the dubious ranking as the toughest hole on the course.

But the USGA didn't just leave it alone and call it a 5; they did some tinkering. There's a new tee box about 40 yards further back and to the left, putting the hole at 555 yards. The fairways have been pinched. Practice round drives this week have often landed in the thick left rough, negating any chance of making the green in two.

"It is a wonderful par 5 that really has a lot of decision-making involved," Phil Mickelson said. "And I think it's such a great thing that they went back to it as a par 5 rather than making it another brutal par 4 like there are so many out here. It just makes it more fun and more interesting. That's a spot where you've got to really decide, 'Is this where I really want to attack it?' Because you're going to see some eagles on that hole."

And some adventures. During Wednesday's practice rounds, players were dropping balls on various points along the fairway, trying both the layup and long approach to the green.

Michael Smith, who made the tournament through local and sectional qualifying, had the worst of both worlds: His drive landed in the left rough, so he dropped a ball on the fairway to try to reach the green in two — and promptly plopped his shot into the pond.

"It's kind of out of character with the rest of the golf course," said defending champion Graeme McDowell, who also found the left rough off the tee in a practice round this week. "It doesn't feel like it fits the golf course. I can't imagine it as a par 4. It's a pretty good 5. It's an exciting 5. Kind of a blind tee shot. You've really got to make sure you pick your spot off the tee. ... It's definitely going to be dramatic."

The extra stroke — which means par will be 71 instead of 70 — helps compensate for the lack of a drivable par 4 on the Blue Course. And, just to make things more interesting at No. 6, the USGA won't be using that new back tee every day during the tournament.

"I have a hunch you might see the tee moved up sometime during the championship to further entice the players to go for that green," said Tom O'Toole, chairman of the USGA's championship committee. "The danger, of course, is the pond. A well-executed shot will make it to that putting green. A poorly executed shot will not."

-- Joseph White

Argentine amateur plays wait game before U.S. Open

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Emiliano Grillo glanced at his watch Wednesday as he stood next to the putting green, the stately clubhouse behind him and a U.S. Open golf course in front of him.

Howls, curses, grimaces and groans, players doubled over with heads in hands — those are the familiar sounds and sights that hold sway during golf's toughest test, beginning with the moment players set eyes on the brutal championship layout and lasting until the last putt drops mercifully on Sunday.

Not this year. In what could charitably be called a pre-emptive strike on the game's most buttoned-down event, Ben Crane and pals Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Hunter Mahan released their send-up of a boy-band video titled "Oh Oh Oh" earlier this week — poking fun at everything from how players dress to the exaggerated manners on display from tee to green.

To celebrate the launch, Crane, the band's leader and chief provocateur, arrived for the tournament's final practice session turned out in pink accents from the tip of his cap down to his saddle shoes.

"All these guys asked at some point if they could do a video and wanted to be in one and so, it just kind of fell into, you know, a boy band-type deal. So we became the golf boys," he chuckled. "It was kind of hot."

Judge for yourself on YouTube, where the two-minute long clip had already generated more than 130,000 hits by mid-afternoon Wednesday. It's not the kind of video you can imagine Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer ever taking part in, though they once posed together in a famous photo wearing women's wigs.

But as Crane's manager, Tommy Limbaugh, noted, "I can't imagine Jack not laughing when he saw it."

No doubt. Crane, who's released a handful of goofy videos previously, wears a crash helmet and bright orange body surfing suit in this one. Watson, playing barefoot, opted for bib overalls and Fowler donned black jeans and jacket with an array of scarfs in typical boy-band style. But it's Mahan who's likely to grab the costuming Oscar for his tiger-stripe pants and sleeveless Alpaca vest.

Asked whether he ever imagined golfers promoting their sport that way, the 66-year-old Limbaugh simply shook his head.

"You're talkin' to an old football coach when you ask that question. Absolutely not. No way to foresee this day coming," he replied. But a moment later, he added, "It's good."

So good, in fact, that Limbaugh hasn't found the time to respond to any but a few of the hundreds of e-mails rolling in, nearly all of which have been positive, let alone keep up with requests from media outlets to put Crane on the air. He did appear on a segment at The Golf Channel, where former player Frank Nobilo, one of the show's over-40 hosts, gave the video a hearty thumbs up.

In this era of Twitter and social networking, younger fans expect to see the curtain pulled back on just about every endeavor, including golf. As Crane made his way from the range to the first tee, fans called out "loved the video" on either side of him. He politely said thanks and squelched any talk about the video transforming him into the game's version of a rock star.

"Just a golfer," he said pausing. "A golfer who likes to enjoy himself."

If the blue blazers who run the U.S. Golf Association had any problem with the video, they held their tongues during the organization's annual "State of the Game" news conference. The PGA Tour, on the other hand, is in the business of merchandising their golfers, which might explain why the video was prominently posted on its website.

Crane made no apologies, saying the timing was intentional.

"We planned it for this week. Everybody is excited about golf this week," he said. "I thought the timing was good."

If Limbaugh's inbox and voicemail count is any indication, Crane is spot on.

"I think genuine interest — this is interesting to me — is how many people are crying for more. Just that simple statement: We need more of this in golf. If there's a constant theme, that's the theme I'm hearing. ...

"I think fans are dying to know golfers — to really know them. What they see between the ropes is focused on one thing, not showing much emotion, whereas this is really opening up the personalities," he said, "in a way they've never seen them."

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org.

Notebook: Rough on the rough: Heat affects U.S. Open planning

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — The year's first major dose of stifling weather came and went last week in suburban Washington, D.C., but it's still having an effect on the U.S. Open.

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma State golfer and four former OSU team members will tee off at the U.S. Open. The event is slated for Thursday through Sunday at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.

Cowboys standout and reigning U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein will start around 7 a.m. Oklahoma time Thursday and will be grouped with defending U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell and 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.

Uihlein participated in The Masters last spring.

Joining Uihlein in the field will be former Cowboys Bo Van Pelt, Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan and Alex Norén.

Other Golf Capsules

New sponsor for PGA Heritage said to be imminent

DALLAS (AP) — Jay Burlison has a one-stroke lead after Wednesday's opening round of the 39th Southern Junior at the Dallas Athletic Club.

The Salinas, Calif., high school sophomore carded a 5-under 67 and posted four birdies and an eagle 3 by reaching the 510-yard 10th hole with driver-wedge to within six feet. At 16, he's the youngest of the leaders in the featured 15-18 age group.

A.J. Crouch of Jacksonville, Fla., joined a trio just one shot back at 68 by rolling in an 80-foot putt on the final hole for his seventh birdie of the day. Also at 68 are Grant Hirschman of Collierville, Tenn., and Wilson Reeder of Tupelo, Miss.

The 156-player field from 21 states and Mexico will be cut after Thursday's round of the 54-hole event.